Internal-combustion engine, method of and means for feeding the same



Apr. 3, 1923, 1,450,250

- D. COLE INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINE, METHOD OF AND MEANS FOR FEEDINGTHE SAME Filed Apr. 4, 1919 4 sheetssheet 1 I N N fmewr Apr. 3, 1923.

D. COLE I INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINE, METHOD OF AND MEANS FOR FEEDINGTHE SAME Filed Apr. 4, 1919 4 sheets-sheet 2 4 sheets-sheet 5 4 A 5 w we w an. 0 a o I 1 2 m 5; 03 k an 55 m n i F A w. wag m .y D

D. COLE INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINE, METHOD OF AND MEANS FOR FEEDING THESAME Filed Apr. 4, 1919 Apr. 3, 1923,

w M a 4 N f ..E J5

Apr. 3, 1923, 1,450,250

D. COLE INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINE, METHOD OF AND MEANS FOR FEEDING THESAME Filed Apr. 4, 1919 Asheets-sheet 4' Patented Apr. 3, 11923.

UNETED STATES team ears-Mr crates.

DON COLE, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, ASSIGNOR OF ONE-HALF TC JOHN A. DIENNER,OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

INTERNAL-CO'llIIBU'S 'JJION ENGINE, METHOD OF AND MEANS FOE. FEEDING THESAME.

Application filed April 4, 1919. Serial No. 287,452.

T 0 all whom it may concern: Be it known that I, DON Come, a citizen ofthe United States, residing at Chicago, in the county of Cook and Stateof Illinois, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement inInternal-Combustion Engines, ethods of and Means for Feeding the Same,of which the following is a full, clear, concise, and exact description,reference being had to the accompanying drawings forming a part of thisspecification.

My invention relates. to internal combustion engines and particularly toa novel method of and means for burning fuel of relatively high boilingpoint in such an enine. g The use of highgrade gasoline for fuel ininternal combustlonengines has in the past been attended with greatcommercial success and has proven to be very popular.

The insufliciency of the amount of such fuel available has forced theuse of fuel involving constitutents of much lower grades of volatility.Consequently the devices depending upon vaporization by spraying suchfuels into a current of air as in the modern carburetor, have beensubject to conditions for which they are not inherently well adapted.The general result has been unsatisfactory due to difiiculty instarting, the loss in power due to imperfect combustion, and the foulingof the cylinders due to,

carbonization.

Keroseneas a fuel has been proposed and tried for a long time but so farvery little, if any, cominercial success has attended such attempts touse it, so far as I have'been able to ascertain.

Kerosene has many things which seem to make it desirable as a fuel. Itcontains more heat units per pound than does gasoline. It does notvaporize away from tanks and containers and is not so apt to causeaccidental explosions. Above all, it is. cheap and plentiful.

It is the purpose of my invention to provide a novel method of themeans'for burning kerosene or other liquid fuels in a modern internalcombustion engine, particularly of the automobile type.

In my co-pending applications, Serial No. 253,140 and Serial No.253,141, I have gine. Consequently it is feasible to convert almost anymodern four cylinder engine into an engine of my improved type withminor changes only. An important advantage is that an engine thusequipped is adapted to burn not only kerosene, but gasoline may be usedwithout change.

More particularly I provide a spraying nozzle or jet operated by suctionto atomize the fuel which is fed from a constant level reservoir. At thesame time a small amount of air is introduced thru the spraying oratomizing nozzle to atomize the fuel as finely as possible. This amountof air is small as compared to the amount required to support combustionand it is not intended to satisfy the suction which is created in theintake manifoldby the individual suction strokes of the engine. The endof the intake manifold is provided with a rotary valve rotating, in thecase of a four cylinder engine, at the speed of the crank shaft. Thisvalve has a passageway thru it opening twice for each revolution in afour cylinder engine so that the valve opens the intake to theatmosphere for each intake stroke of the engine. This opening is foronly a part of the complete stroke and occurs only at the end thereof.The result is that the fuel is first atomized and subjected to reducedpressure in the intake manifold, and then toward the end of the suctionstroke the air valve is thrown wide open, causing a sudden rush of airto sweep the contents of the intake manifold intothe c linder, afterwhich the intake valve closes sharply. The rotary valve also closespromptly and prepares the intake manifold for the next suction stroke ofthe succeeding cylinder. Owing t0 Ver high suction on the jet during thefirst half of the intake stroke, the fuel is drawn into the intake andatomized by the suction. It can be seen that after the opening of therotary valve the suction drops very decidedly in the intake pipe. Thisprevents the feeding of practically any more fuel into the intake of theengine.

In ofder to make clear to those skilled in the art how to construct andpractice my invention, 1 shall now describe the same in connection withthe accompanying draw- F igure 1 is a side elevational view of a fourcylinder engine on the valve side of the same, illustrating my inventionFigure 2 is a central vertical sectional view of the same;

Figure 3 is a diagram of the timmg of the valves;

Figure & is a sectional view of the valve and fuel spraying device takenon the line H of Figure 5; and

Figure 5 is a transverse sectional View taken on the line 5-5 of Figure4;

Figures 6, 7 and 8 are diagrams of the intake stroke showing theposition of the parts at 10 from the top of the intake stroke, 90 and190 respectively; and

Figure 9 is a cross-section of the fuel atomizing device,

The engine which I have illustrated may be considered as typical of anyfour cycle. four cylinder engine. I have shown the same as comprisingthe cylinder castings 1 and the crank casing 2, which are suitablybolted together by means of the flanges 3.

The cylinder casting 1 comprises a. plurality of cylinders 4 havingsuitable water jackets 5. Each cylinder is provided with the usualpiston 6 connected by a connecting rod 7 to the crank shaft 8.

Each cylinder is provided with a suitable exhaust valve 9 and intakevalve 10, controlling the exhaust from and intake to the cylinders 4. Asuitable cam shaft 11, driven at half of the speed of the crank shaft 8operates the valves to control the working of the engine.

The exhaust passage 13 is connected by a suitable exhaust manifold tothe exhaust pipe of the engine. An intake manifold 15 is connected tothe intake ports of the cyl-' inders, and is also provided with a flange16, such as have been heretofore provided for the attachment of acarburetor where gasoline is employed as fuel. The exhaust manifold isprovided with an envelope or heating loop about the intake manifold asshown at 17. This feature is not essential but aids in vaporizing andmixing the fuel.

The intake manifold 15 is providedwith a suitable throttle valve 18 forcontrolling the rate of fuel feed to the cylinders and for controllingthe speed of the engine.

The features above described may all be stock parts of engines nowknown, with the possible difference that the cam shaft 11 is timed forthe particular use to which this engine is adapted.

The end of the intake 15 is closed by means of a valve casing member l9,which is provided with a suitable bolting flange 20 secured to theflange 16. This valve casing member has a rotary barrel 21 which isadapted to house a suitable rotary valve 22, shown in detail in Figure4. The barrel member 21 has a cylindrical inner surface within which therotary valve member 22 fits closely. The ends of the barrel member areclosed by the heads 23 and 24 which also have bearings 25 for the shaft26, upon which the valve member 22 is mounted. This valve member ispreferably made of a pair of end members 27 and 28, mounted on the shaft26 and having a sleeve 29 mounted be tween the head members. The sleeveis slotted thru diametrically so as to provide ports 30. The barrelmember 21 is similarly provided with an intake port 31 opening toatmosphere, and a somewhat restricted port 32 which opens into theintake passageway 33, which in turn communicates with the intakemanifold 15. The restricted port 32 serves to concentrate the force ofthe air entering therethru for enhancing the aspirrating and atomizingeffect produced on fuel discharged from the nozzle 35. The body member19 is drilled and tapped as shown at 34 to receive the fuel feedingnozzle 35. This fuel feeding nozzle 35 comprises a hollow threadedsleeve member 36 and an axial tube or sleeve 37 which is open at itslower end 38 to atmosphere, this nozzle just terminating at the innersurface of the wall of the valve casing 19, so that fuel will be readilypicked off from the nozzle. The outer threaded sleeve member 36 has ahead 39 at its lower end which is adapted to clamp the extension 40 ofthe float chamber bowl'tl against the bottom of the body member 19. Thethreaded sleeve member 36 has perforations 41' at its lower end to placethe interior of the same in communication with the fuel passageway 42,which fuel passageway communicates with the interior of the floatchamber 41. A valve a3 controls the feed of liquid fuel from the floatchamber 41 to the nozzle 35. The inner. sleeve 37: is perforated asshown at 44 so thatsuction upon the end of the nozzle causes the liquidfuel to rise within the annular space between thethrcaded sleeve 36 andthe axial tube 37, and to discharge thru the opening or openings 44 intothe interior of the axial tube 37, causing atomization of the liquidfuel as -.it is discharged into the intake passageway 33.

The valve 43 is preferably, tho not necessarily, connected to thethrottle valve 18 as by means of the connection 45 so that the amount offuel that can be fed to the nozzle 35 is reduced as the throttle valve18 is closed.

The valve shaft 26 1s drlven in unison with the crank shaft 8 bysuitable gearing,

Assuming as is shown in Figure 6 that the piston is beginning thedownward stroke and has reached a point 10 degrees away from the top, asis indicated in the diagram of- Figure 3, the exhaust valve 9 has justclosed and the intake valve 10 has just been opened. The rotary airintake valve 22 is at this time closed and remains closed until thecrank shaft assumes a position approximately 90 past top center as shownin Figure 7. The atomizing' conduit 37 is open and kerosene is beingdrawn from the float chamber and is projected in a fine spray into theintake manifold which is immediately placed under a relatively highsuction, so that the particles of kerosene are vaporized to as great anextent as possible, and are subjected to an act-ion of atomization bythe high velocity of the air thru the conduit 37 As the piston 6descends sufficient fuel is drawn into the conduit 37 to furnish fuelfor one power stroke. The rotary intake valve 22 is opened whenthe-crank stands at about 90 past top center, as shown in F igure 7. Asthe intake and manifold 15 are under a relatively high suction, and asthe area of port opening is quite large, the

charge of fuel which was held within the intake manifold is suddenlypacked intothe cylinder with sufiicient air to support combustion andthereafter the intake valve-10 is closed. effect on thel timing of thefuel feed, but merely is employed as a meteringelement. Theintakevalve10 is closed preferably 10 deg. after the bot-tom ofthe stroke as shownin Figure 8, and this coincides with the opening of the intake andclosure of exhaust in another cylinder. The rotary intake valve 22 isclosed at about the same'time so that the intake pipe 15 may again besubjected to suction from the next cylinder. After the intake valve 10is closed the piston moves upward to compress the charge on the uwardstroke, as is customary. The 7 charge is then forced downwar Whenthe crank has turned through substantially 135 deg. from the top of itsexplosion stroke the exhaust valve 9 is opened and remains open duringthe rest of the power stroke and thru the The nozzle control valve 43has no ignited and the piston is canl shaft, intake an succeedingexhaust stroke which extendsthru the upwardstroke and 10 deg. past thetop of said upward stroke, or a total of substantially 235 deg.

It will now be apparent that I have provided a novel method of feedingan internal combustion engine which produces ideal conditions foratomization of the fuel, mixing of'the charge, and efficient combustionof the same. In addition, it is possible to control the speed of theengine by the throttle valve, as is practiced in the modern automobileengine.

The air intake opening thru the valve may be made as large as desired sothat ample mixture may be provided at each stroke.

The atomizing nozzle 35 is in fact a small carburetor or carburetingdevice for supplying an over-rich mixture of air and atomized fuel whichmay be controlled by a throttle valve instead of the needle valve 43. Inthis event the throttle '18 may be placed between the air intake, valveand the nozzle 35 so that the two sources of entering air may bethrottled simultaneously.

It is obvious that to permit either joint or independent control of thetime of openingof the respective valves so that the engine may beeffectively throttled to take in less explosive mixture for each stroke,or so that adjustment may be made between the amount of atomized fuel.injected into the intake manifold and the amount of air thereafterthrown into the same, independent control of the nozzle 35 and valve 22may be had.

However, the construction which I have illustrated shows the fundamentalfeatures of operation of my invention which is the basis,

of all other modifications or improvements which I have above mentioned.I find'that in operation the engine constructed according to myinvention operates without the objectionable features heretoforeencountered in burning kerosene. The'violent and uncontrollableexplosions which have previously been encountered in experimenting withkerosene as a fuel have been totally eliminated and a smooth uietrunning engine has been produced. have made tests of theengine todetermine the power of the same in comparison with the power of theengine operated with gasoline and the proper carburetor according to theprior art and I find that the performance of the engine, according to myinvention, is within one or two percent of the performance upon gasolinewith regard to the actual'power developed onthe test block.

I do not intend to be limited tails illustrated I claim': Incombination, an engine having the usual main shaft, en ine cylinder,piston, if exhaust valves, and

to the deand described..

a cam on said cam shaft for positively actuating said intake valve, anintake manifold extending upwardly along said engine cylinder andcommunicating With said intake valve, said intake manifold comprisingacylindrical valve chamber at its lower end, said valve chamber havingan air port extending longitudinally thereof and opening into the bottomportion of said chamber, a cylindrical rotary intake valve in said valvechamber, said valve having a pair of diametrically opposed slotsconstituting a passageway therethrough for registration with said airport, a chain for driving said rotary intake valve in synchronism withsaid main shaft, a fuel nozzle discharging into said intake manifold inclose proximity to said rotary intake valve, said fuel nozzle comprisingan outer sleeve threadinginto said manifold and an. inner spaced concentric tube extending through said sleeve, the bore in said sleeve and thebore in said tube constituting tvvo separate passages, means foradmitting fuel to one of said passages and a restricted volume of air tothe other of said passages, said rotary intake valve discharging intosaid manifold at a point immediately anterior to said nozzle whereby thevolume of air admitted through said intake valve is directed intoimmediate contact with said nozzle in its passage upwardly through saidmanifold, a restriction in said manifold for accelerating the flow ofair past said nozzle, a throttle valve in said manifold, and meansoperating conjointly with the throttle valve for metering the dischargeof fuel from said nozzle.

In Witness whereof I hereunto subscribe my name this 2 day of April, A.D. 1919.

DON COLE.

